Linda Rosencrance from Computerworld analyzes the status quo of e-paper technologies and their near future.

One of the major e-paper developers is MIT-offspring E Ink Corp, whose technology is also used in Sony's DRM-polluted Librie reader: "For the Librie product, we make our e-ink as a film, a sheet of plastic that gets sold to Philips Electronics. Philips makes the display, and then the display is sold to Sony and put into an electronic reader," says Darren Bischoff, E Ink's marketing manager. "We're part of an enabling component for making that a paperlike reading experience."

But E Ink is already working on the next-generation smart paper called RadioPaper: "Now we can make something that visually looks like paper, but we want something that feels like paper as well," Bischoff from E Ink says.

What I don't understand is why Sony is still the only company who has purchased E Ink displays from Philips and used them for a handheld application. E Ink says it wants to see its technology appear in electronic devices ranging from handheld computers to cellular phones, calculators, digital watches and car dashboards.

So what are they waiting for? The Sony Librie is certainly not the "killer app" we were waiting for!

It seems to me that most companies are a bit leery of investing too much in new technology, especially stuff as bleeding edge as this is. We can all see the benefits, of course, but it usually takes one or two special individuals or companies in the right place to grab the ball and run with it. Sony tried and it looks like they might have stuffed it up (certainly for their international customers)...